CAMPBELL, Calif., [date], 2023 – Centric Software® is pleased to announce that the sports brand JOOLA has selected their Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution, Centric PLMTM. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products such as fashion, outdoor, luxury, multi-category retail, grocery, food & beverage, cosmetics & personal care and consumer electronics to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.
Founded in 1952 in Germany, JOOLA is a globally recognized indoor and outdoor table tennis equipment brand that has sponsored 3 Olympic Games. JOOLA designs and manufactures both hardline goods such as tables, rackets and balls, as well as softline products such as apparel, footwear and accessories. Since 2022, JOOLA has embraced the fast-growing sport of pickleball and expanded into a range of products for pickleball players.
Now headquartered in the US, JOOLA is working hard to grow the brand internationally and wanted a PLM solution to better organize product development data and free up resources.
“We launched the pickleball business in 2022, and we’ve seen tremendous growth since then,” says Richard Lee, CEO of JOOLA. “We’re launching new products left and right, so we definitely need more data organization to make sure we are tracking everything properly.”
JOOLA conducted extensive PLM research and due diligence, ultimately selecting Centric PLM based on its holistic solutions, industry reputation, market leadership and usability. JOOLA will implement Centric PLM for both its US and German operations.
“We definitely did our research on different PLM systems, and Centric continuously showed up as number one; And we, of course, want to choose the number one solution for our PLM system,” adds Austin Kim, Product Manager at JOOLA. “We have so many different data sources, and data gets lost in spreadsheets and emails. User errors happen, and it’s [become] challenging to keep everything updated. After meeting with the Centric team and learning about its functionality, it sealed the deal.”
JOOLA is looking forward to integrating end-to-end digital solutions that will improve teams’ collaboration, supply chain communications, pricing optimization, product lifecycle and relieve operational stresses. Its growth has been on the fast track for years, and with the addition of pickleball equipment, they recognized the demand for a modernized system to simplify and expedite the product lifecycle.
“Our teams are already pretty well-versed in Centric,” says Sunny Le, Director, Softline Products at JOOLA. “Along with streamlining processes and organizing data, it’s also going to be beneficial from a labor standpoint as people won’t spend so much time cleaning up data or pulling information from different places. It will make it really easy for us to work more collaboratively.”
One of many perks of Centric Software is the availability of the team to answer questions at any time, providing custom solutions around each of their clients’ individual best practices. Brands from all over the world claim they have a wonderful time working alongside the software company and have seen exponential growth through digital transformation.
“We are delighted that JOOLA has placed their trust in Centric to build a digital foundation for growth,” says Fabrice Canonge, President of Centric Software. “We look forward to working closely with JOOLA to drive more efficient product development, expansion and innovation.”
